Mongolia Presidential Candidate Evokes Trump, Challenges IMF

  • Battulga seeks to reinstate bank law that almost derailed loan
  • Nation rich in natural resources holds election on June 26

Workers walk across the construction site of a residential building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongoli.

Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi
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One of Mongolia’s top presidential candidates is seeking to reinstate a banking measure that almost derailed the country’s $434 million bailout last month as part of a populist-tinged campaign.

Battulga Khaltmaa, a candidate with President Elbegdorj Tsakhia’s Democratic party, told Bloomberg in an interview that he supports restoring a provision requiring revenue from the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine and other large foreign-backed projects to be directed through local banks. Mongolia’s parliament repealed the provision last month, after the International Monetary Fund balked at approving the funding.